What slows down my iPhone 6 so much?

[nbnbxdnb]

I just upgraded my iPhone 6 to iPhone XR. It is mainly due to the long loading time of iPhone 6. It was never a problem at the beginning. But since Oct this year, some apps would start to quit in the middle of operation. Then I need restart my iPhone to make everything work again. The only reason I could think of is due to limited resources on my phone. I am thinking why my ip6 was slowed down so much over years.
There was battery gate last year, so I took the chance to add in a new battery. I don't see other wearing on the hardware. Then I have iOS 12 and apps left. In comparison to a 5yr old OS, I think iOS 12 requires more resources to run logically, but I don't know if it can burden ip6 so much. Then I think maybe the lag is due to the new app updates, which make the apps more resource consuming over the years.
I am thinking if I should disable OS and app autoupdate to preserve my new XR in the current state. For an expensive phone like this, I would prefer using it for a long time like 5 yrs. I still think the screen and body of my ip6 is in a pristine state. I feel regretful to replace it because of the various updates I installed over years.

 

[Der Keyser]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.
The only question is: Is the slowdown built in from scratch in the OS based on timers/ages of the phone, or do they slow the OS down with each small release. I think it’s the former as they would otherwise be caught right away with performance comparisons. Also, the former will make every phone “age” the same so you cannot avoid it by not installing updates.

 

[C DM]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.
The only question is: Is the slowdown built in from scratch in the OS based on timers/ages of the phone, or do they slow the OS down with each small release. I think it’s the former as they would otherwise be caught right away with performance comparisons. Also, the former will make every phone “age” the same so you cannot avoid it by not installing updates.

iOS 12.1.2 is slowing down devices?

 

[nbnbxdnb]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.
The only question is: Is the slowdown built in from scratch in the OS based on timers/ages of the phone, or do they slow the OS down with each small release. I think it’s the former as they would otherwise be caught right away with performance comparisons. Also, the former will make every phone “age” the same so you cannot avoid it by not installing updates.

If Apple really works on such plot, XR should be my last iPhone. I also wonder if the apps also require more resources to run as they update over time.

 

[watchthisspace]

This video explains why iPhone's slow down with age:

 

[CTHarrryH]

With no details about what your are running etc. there is no answer to your question. The planned obsolescence is ...Apple plans this as every other company in the world.

Details might help - it could be some of the applications that you run that are causing the slowdown because of how they deal with IOS - but no details ...

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.
The only question is: Is the slowdown built in from scratch in the OS based on timers/ages of the phone, or do they slow the OS down with each small release. I think it’s the former as they would otherwise be caught right away with performance comparisons. Also, the former will make every phone “age” the same so you cannot avoid it by not installing updates.

Sorry, my X is better on 12.1.2 than it was on any version of iOS 11.

 

[FeliApple]

-"What slows down my iPhone so much?"
+iOS versions. Don't update your XR - leave it on iOS 12 forever - and you'll be fine. Perfectly fine. I did that with my 6s - it is running iOS 9 - and still works like new. Battery life is amazing (around double that of a 6s on iOS 12, with the original battery), and performance is amazing.
App updates should be perfectly fine. At most they'll screw up that particular app. I don't even update the majority of my apps, but some I do, and I haven't had issues. iOS updates, on the other hand... well, I'd say they are something to avoid, without exceptions.

 

[aKansasKid]

I suspect it's one or more of your apps. Kinda hard to blame Apple for that. My iPhone 6 is on 12.0.1 and runs faster than it did on 10 or 11. General maneuvering around the iOS is smoother and faster. But I mainly use Safari and iMessage, and occasionally use a few other apps. Of those, only an updated Words with Friends has gotten slower. But it has on my Android phone, too.

 

[nbnbxdnb]

-"What slows down my iPhone so much?"
+iOS versions. Don't update your XR - leave it on iOS 12 forever - and you'll be fine. Perfectly fine. I did that with my 6s - it is running iOS 9 - and still works like new. Battery life is amazing (around double that of a 6s on iOS 12, with the original battery), and performance is amazing.
App updates should be perfectly fine. At most they'll screw up that particular app. I don't even update the majority of my apps, but some I do, and I haven't had issues. iOS updates, on the other hand... well, I'd say they are something to avoid, without exceptions.

Yeah. This is what I plan to do for now - keep the current iOS ver and only update apps when necessary. Kind of sad when you consider iOS has major update every year. Maybe next year I update again if it comes with dark mode.
[doublepost=1546252290][/doublepost]Btw, I don't really know if Apple should be blamed. I think it is kind of my work laptop and home laptop. I don't install anything more than necessary for work on my work laptop. I don't upgrade OS. It stays input for years. I kind of try many new things on my home laptop. Speaking of which, it is a MacBook Pro 2013 loaded with Mojave and it also works quite reasonably well. Even if I really do not like Mojave, I can roll it back with my Time Machine. My biggest complaint with iOS is that, I am not allowed to roll back my system even when I have a system backup available. Maybe I should really stop upgrading iOS due to this.

 

[mrochester]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.
The only question is: Is the slowdown built in from scratch in the OS based on timers/ages of the phone, or do they slow the OS down with each small release. I think it’s the former as they would otherwise be caught right away with performance comparisons. Also, the former will make every phone “age” the same so you cannot avoid it by not installing updates.

These conspiracy theories are never helpful.

What slows down your older devices is software advancement and lack of focus on software optimisation. This is why when you had a computer that worked great on Windows XP, once you upgraded to Windows Vista, and then to windows 7, it got slower and slower.

The hardware capability remains the same, it’s the software that becomes more demanding.

What you need to do to avoid this is not update your software. And that comes with its own set of trade offs you need to understand and accept.

 

[Spoon!]

Yeah. This is what I plan to do for now - keep the current iOS ver and only update apps when necessary. Kind of sad when you consider iOS has major update every year. Maybe next year I update again if it comes with dark mode.

This is stupid and terrible advice. Your XR is going to be fast for years to come. There is absolutely zero reason to keep it on iOS 12 for the foreseeable future. Your 6 got slower because the minimal requirements of applications and games tend to go up every several years and the iPhone 6 only has a paltry 1 GB of RAM. Although planned obsolescence is a thing, Apple still supports devices all the way down to the 5S with iOS 12 and I have a 5S as a backup phone and it’s buttery smooth with iOS 12 compared to iOS 11 as Apple shifted their focus to performance and bug fixes instead of new features this time around because iOS 11 was a disaster for many. The XR has the same chip as the XS and 3 GB of RAM. We’re at the point in phone speed where you needn’t worry about phone slowdown. The only area it may choke in is absolute cutting edge mobile graphics with a handful of AAA games, but even then you will probably be good until your phone dies at this point. And perhaps apps that only support the latest cutting edge features that the XR may not have several years from now.

The point is, stop being paranoid and stop listening to the advice of other paranoid people and update your phone.

 

[Der Keyser]

Sorry, my X is better on 12.1.2 than it was on any version of iOS 11.

Oh, I do not disagree with you on that. IOS 11 was never fantastic
And 12.1.2 runs fine - it’s just that It’s no longer launching apps at the speed 12.0 did, and the keyboard is also starting to launch a IOS 11 speeds again. So whatever stopgaps they pulled in 12.0 to make it “fast” again, they are starting to put back in. Especially the app launch speed has gone way down - now whether thats because the app coders decided to put in more functionality and the app has gotten bigger, or whether it’s Apple that has reverted some of their optimizations, i don’t know, but my money is on the latter
Incidentally, one of the ways Apple could pull this slowdown trick is to have the compiler app devs use, include ever more “bloat” code in the name of enhancements and functionality, but it also makes steadily slower compiled code.

 

[mrochester]

Oh, I do not disagree with you on that. IOS 11 was never fantastic
And 12.1.2 runs fine - it’s just that It’s no longer launching apps at the speed 12.0 did, and the keyboard is also starting to launch a IOS 11 speeds again. So whatever stopgaps they pulled in 12.0 to make it “fast” again, they are starting to put back in. Especially the app launch speed has gone way down - now whether thats because the app coders decided to put in more functionality and the app has gotten bigger, or whether it’s Apple that has reverted some of their optimizations, i don’t know, but my money is on the latter
Incidentally, one of the ways Apple could pull this slowdown trick is to have the compiler app devs use, include ever more “bloat” code in the name of enhancements and functionality, but it also makes steadily slower compiled code.

There’s also a perception issue. When you first get something that is ‘faster’ than your old thing you notice it. When you become accustomed to that new ‘faster’ thing it no longer appears as fast as you first thought when you compared it to your old ‘slower’ thing.

What you need is scientific experimentation into the speed of something because relying on your perception is not accurate.

 

[FeliApple]

This is stupid and terrible advice. Your XR is going to be fast for years to come. There is absolutely zero reason to keep it on iOS 12 for the foreseeable future. Your 6 got slower because the minimal requirements of applications and games tend to go up every several years and the iPhone 6 only has a paltry 1 GB of RAM. Although planned obsolescence is a thing, Apple still supports devices all the way down to the 5S with iOS 12 and I have a 5S as a backup phone and it’s buttery smooth with iOS 12 compared to iOS 11 as Apple shifted their focus to performance and bug fixes instead of new features this time around because iOS 11 was a disaster for many. The XR has the same chip as the XS and 3 GB of RAM. We’re at the point in phone speed where you needn’t worry about phone slowdown. The only area it may choke in is absolute cutting edge mobile graphics with a handful of AAA games, but even then you will probably be good until your phone dies at this point. And perhaps apps that only support the latest cutting edge features that the XR may not have several years from now.

The point is, stop being paranoid and stop listening to the advice of other paranoid people and update your phone.

When battery life drops tremendously on whatever version it does - because it will - and leaves you with a battery life that is half that of a non-updated phone, you'll remember.
I'd venture performance might be somehow better than Apple's current course - course which iOS 11 showed that Apple yet can't correct, one version is the exception and not the rule, so far - but I would like to see what does iOS 13 do to older devices which get it. If there's a huge redesign, then I'd venture performance on the oldest supported devices will be pathetic compared to initial versions. If it isn't, then updating might be recommendable. Until then, I consider my advice helpful and based on reality. There isn't a centimetre of paranoid in it - I've seen too many updated devices with poor results to doubt my approach, at least for now.
[doublepost=1546265565][/doublepost]

Yeah. This is what I plan to do for now - keep the current iOS ver and only update apps when necessary. Kind of sad when you consider iOS has major update every year. Maybe next year I update again if it comes with dark mode.
[doublepost=1546252290][/doublepost]Btw, I don't really know if Apple should be blamed. I think it is kind of my work laptop and home laptop. I don't install anything more than necessary for work on my work laptop. I don't upgrade OS. It stays input for years. I kind of try many new things on my home laptop. Speaking of which, it is a MacBook Pro 2013 loaded with Mojave and it also works quite reasonably well. Even if I really do not like Mojave, I can roll it back with my Time Machine. My biggest complaint with iOS is that, I am not allowed to roll back my system even when I have a system backup available. Maybe I should really stop upgrading iOS due to this.

On Macs it is different. Barring a battery life decrease, performance remains fine - but if it doesn't, you can always downgrade. Historically, at least recently, when I started to follow Mac, OS updates on Macs have been far better than their iOS counterparts.
I'd probably recommend to update on Macs, if and when there's nothing specifically holding you back.
Furthermore, as you said, you can always go back.

 

[Spoon!]

When battery life drops tremendously on whatever version it does - because it will - and leaves you with a battery life that is half that of a non-updated phone, you'll remember.
I'd venture performance might be somehow better than Apple's current course - course which iOS 11 showed that Apple yet can't correct, one version is the exception and not the rule, so far - but I would like to see what does iOS 13 do to older devices which get it. If there's a huge redesign, then I'd venture performance on the oldest supported devices will be pathetic compared to initial versions. If it isn't, then updating might be recommendable. Until then, I consider my advice helpful and based on reality. There isn't a centimetre of paranoid in it - I've seen too many updated devices with poor results to doubt my approach, at least for now.

If iOS 13 makes all but the latest devices snail slow, then taking precautions would make sense. But you’re bringing up a battery issue that Apple got torn a new one for and was addressed in iOS 12. It was scummy of them, but I don’t think they’ll get caught doing it again, but I could be wrong. We will see.

 

[FeliApple]

If iOS 13 makes all but the latest devices snail slow, then taking precautions would make sense. But you’re bringing up a battery issue that Apple got torn a new one for and was addressed in iOS 12. It was scummy of them, but I don’t think they’ll get caught doing it again, but I could be wrong. We will see.

The fact that new iOS versions drain battery has been there since the beginning. I have seen it since I started using iOS devices, back in iOS 4.
This is not new. iOS 12 has worse battery life compared to iOS 10, too. It is similar - but not better - to iOS 11.

 

[now i see it]

The golden rule for happy iPhone life is:
Never update the OS beyond the numerical version it came with.

That means you've got to buy a new iPhone within a year of when it was released. Otherwise it'll have the next version on it.

While iOS updates can add new little (usually questionable) features, and lots of bugs that didn't exist in the prior version, in my opinion, iOS updates are a cancer to the phone and eventually kill it - or make you want to kill it.

 

[Knight3]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.

Do you think Android Pie [9.0] is lighter than Jelly Bean [4.0]? You seem technically less knowledgeable as to how software works. Each newer version of software is bound to be heavier as it introduces more features in addition to the already existing features. It's not like they swap out one feature for another. Expecting an older device to handle a newer iOS version just as fast and efficient is like expecting to make a trip from New York to San Fransisco with just a tank of gas. The resources should be adequate and there's only so much even the best engineering team could achieve with what's available.

If you can handle newer versions of OS on older devices just as better with the older processors, there wouldn't be 100s of new phones every year with all the performance upgrades. They'd just focus on improving the software instead of spending millions of dollars on the hardware R&D.

 

[pika2000]

Planned obsolecense from Apple’s part. They slowly make the OS heavier and heavier to criple performance and make you buy a new phone. Even with their fingers caught in the cookie jar on the battery issue they only made temporary band aids. Take IOS12 fx. Lightening fast at release because they needed the publicity from “making amends” and giving your device it’s performance back. But now at 12.1.2 it has already slowed down the iPhone 8 to IOS 11.4 speed again. So it was a very temporary “fix”.
The only question is: Is the slowdown built in from scratch in the OS based on timers/ages of the phone, or do they slow the OS down with each small release. I think it’s the former as they would otherwise be caught right away with performance comparisons. Also, the former will make every phone “age” the same so you cannot avoid it by not installing updates.

Bull.
My 6S performs like new after iOS 12.
iPhone 6 is slow due to 1GB of RAM.
[doublepost=1546315100][/doublepost]

The golden rule for happy iPhone life is:
Never update the OS beyond the numerical version it came with.

That means you've got to buy a new iPhone within a year of when it was released. Otherwise it'll have the next version on it.

While iOS updates can add new little (usually questionable) features, and lots of bugs that didn't exist in the prior version, in my opinion, iOS updates are a cancer to the phone and eventually kill it - or make you want to kill it.

This is the dumbest comment I’ve ever seen. iOS 12 has been an excellent refresh for every supported iPhone.

 

[Der Keyser]

Do you think Android Pie [9.0] is lighter than Jelly Bean [4.0]? You seem technically less knowledgeable as to how software works. Each newer version of software is bound to be heavier as it introduces more features in addition to the already existing features. It's not like they swap out one feature for another. Expecting an older device to handle a newer iOS version just as fast and efficient is like expecting to make a trip from New York to San Fransisco with just a tank of gas. The resources should be adequate and there's only so much even the best engineering team could achieve with what's available.

If you can handle newer versions of OS on older devices just as better with the older processors, there wouldn't be 100s of new phones every year with all the performance upgrades. They'd just focus on improving the software instead of spending millions of dollars on the hardware R&D.

Ehm, the problem is actually the opposite, I know very well how OS’s and software works - It’s my job, and has been for 30 years. And while I'd love to say you are right it’s just more complicated than that. Of course new features, API’s and functions requires more ressources, and as such one can resonably expect slower performance with each new major release. The problem is that the software written today - is created in VERY inefficient high level code and after compiling it, it uses absurd amounts of ressources compared to what it could be using, if written 100% optimally. I'd wager that if IOS12 and apps was written 100% optimally it would probably be at generally 3 - 5 times faster and probably use about one fifth of the memory. The problem is that writing it like this (and in machinelevel code for 100% optimization) would be impossible. It would probably require a hundred or a thousand times more manpower, and would never reach the marked in a timely fashion. So what they do is make a tradeoff that's also very good for business. They optimize very little which speeds up development but unfortunately requires you to buy a phone every 2 or 3 years to have good performance due to added software bloat.
The major gripe with this approach is that today we are at a point where optimizations to make the OS runs VERY good on fx. iphone 6 and 6s would be comparatively easy, but the business incentive is not there - so it's not being done. We are actually so far down the "bloat" code path now that it's being used actively in "slowing down" older devices to make you purchase a new device (planned obsolecense).
What we need is a little more environmental responsibility from these manufactureres so we do not use up all of earths ressources to produce new phones and computers to run new and higher level code, but instead use the hardware already produced much more efficiently. But there is no money and business to made from doing that...... So we just continue doing what we always did and destroy the earth to make the top 1% people even more insanely rich

Just to make one thing clear - this is VERY far from apple fault alone - actually the OS is by far the most optimized codestack on your phone. The problem is very much with the app developers as well as they use insane amounts of memory in inefficient code and that forces the OS to start making "unhealthy" performance decisions to free up memory. Probably the best example I have seen on this issue is the Slack client for Windows. It's a simple chat/notification client, but it easily uses 800Mb to 1Gb+ memory to startup. If written properly and optimized I'd wager it could work perfectly with less than 20MB of memory. That's a 40 to 50x bloat on ressources just because they can reuse code across platforms and spare expenses on optimizing the code.

 

[mrochester]

Ehm, the problem is actually the opposite, I know very well how OS’s and software works - It’s my job, and has been for 30 years. And while I'd love to say you are right it’s just more complicated than that. Of course new features, API’s and functions requires more ressources, and as such one can resonably expect slower performance with each new major release. The problem is that the software written today - is created in VERY inefficient high level code and after compiling it, it uses absurd amounts of ressources compared to what it could be using, if written 100% optimally. I'd wager that if IOS12 and apps was written 100% optimally it would probably be at generally 3 - 5 times faster and probably use about one fifth of the memory. The problem is that writing it like this (and in machinelevel code for 100% optimization) would be impossible. It would probably require a hundred or a thousand times more manpower, and would never reach the marked in a timely fashion. So what they do is make a tradeoff that's also very good for business. They optimize very little which speeds up development but unfortunately requires you to buy a phone every 2 or 3 years to have good performance due to added software bloat.
The major gripe with this approach is that today we are at a point where optimizations to make the OS runs VERY good on fx. iphone 6 and 6s would be comparatively easy, but the business incentive is not there - so it's not being done. We are actually so far down the "bloat" code path now that it's being used actively in "slowing down" older devices to make you purchase a new device (planned obsolecense).
What we need is a little more environmental responsibility from these manufactureres so we do not use up all of earths ressources to produce new phones and computers to run new and higher level code, but instead use the hardware already produced much more efficiently. But there is no money and business to made from doing that...... So we just continue doing what we always did and destroy the earth to make the top 1% people even more insanely rich

Just to make one thing clear - this is VERY far from apple fault alone - actually the OS is by far the most optimized codestack on your phone. The problem is very much with the app developers as well as they use insane amounts of memory in inefficient code and that forces the OS to start making "unhealthy" performance decisions to free up memory. Probably the best example I have seen on this issue is the Slack client for Windows. It's a simple chat/notification client, but it easily uses 800Mb to 1Gb+ memory to startup. If written properly and optimized I'd wager it could work perfectly with less than 20MB of memory. That's a 40 to 50x bloat on ressources just because they can reuse code across platforms and spare expenses on optimizing the code.

Sounds like we need a nationalised hardware and software stack. Stop for profit companies being involved in hardware and software development.

 

[Der Keyser]

Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that our current society model has no way to solve this issue because we have no models for making money on using less.
A funny thought experiment: If we stopped all delevopment on faster processors and larger memory modules (hence also new phones and computers that only offers to be “faster” than the last generation), we would easily still have compute and memory power enough in the world to continue the digitalization and development of businesses and IT for at least 10 years to come. We would just have write better and more efficient code that uses the current ressources much much better and that would be easily possible.

The problem is it would be “impossible” at this time due to 2 things (The real word is “unacceptable” to our current society model, but the teachings and owners of the world has us using “impossible” in stead):
1: Currently We do not have developers enough to start making software more effecient as well as making new features. This would slow down new code development and the making of new money in the IT industry.
2: There is no business model in efficiency as spending more manpower on something that is already running makes no money. And money makes the world go around - It’s killing the world as well, but the top 1% people that owns 60% of the world doesn’t care. And most of the rest of us either knows no better or has no other options due to debt

 

[mrochester]

Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that our current society model has no way to solve this issue because we have no models for making money on using less.
A funny thought experiment: If we stopped all delevopment on faster processors and larger memory modules (hence also new phones and computers that only offers to be “faster” than the last generation), we would easily still have compute and memory power enough in the world to continue the digitalization and development of businesses and IT for at least 10 years to come. We would just have write better and more efficient code that uses the current ressources much much better and that would be easily possible.

The problem is it would be “impossible” at this time due to 2 things (The real word is “unacceptable” to our current society model, but the teachings and owners of the world has us using “impossible” in stead):
1: Currently We do not have developers enough to start making software more effecient as well as making new features. This would slow down new code development and the making of new money in the IT industry.
2: There is no business model in efficiency as spending more manpower on something that is already running makes no money. And money makes the world go around - It’s killing the world as well, but the top 1% people that owns 60% of the world doesn’t care. And most of the rest of us either knows no better or has no other options due to debt

There is a model for making money on using less; put prices up. But it takes collaboration across industry to all put prices up and there's very heavy regulation to prevent that from happening.

We've also ended up in a situation where we've made things ridiculously complex (software wise) that even the people who built the software don't really know how it works or how to optimise it. So many parts of our software experiences are interlinked that you can change code to fix one thing which unintentionally breaks some apparently unrelated other feature.

 

[Easttime]

I got new life out of my sluggish 6 when I had the battery replaced and did a deep wipe and restore as new. It was still running fine on the latest iOS when I recently replaced it with an XR. I wiped the 6 and handed it down to a family member who is very happy with it. My conclusion was a combination of aging battery and accumulated software crud. The cloud makes install from new much easier these days, rather than restore to a new phone from a backup, but I did set up my new iPhone with a backup from the rejuvenated iPhone 6 via iTunes and all is well.